WHEN you call out billionaire Elon Musk for the way in which he has enabled and platformed the fascists and racists and turned a once invaluable social media platform into the 21st century equivalent of the Völkischer Beobachter, the Nazi newspaper, you not only get subjected to a pile on from Musk's incel fanboys you also attract the ire of the notoriously thin skinned Musk himself who like his cult followers is not at all averse to tossing about baseless slurs.
My piece for this paper last week which noted how Musk has turned Twitter - which I refuse to call X - into a cesspit of misinformation, hatred and racism was met by a torrent of online abuse and a pile on from Musk's right wing troll army, most of which was personal in nature, some of which was defamatory, and none of which actually engaged with the points I had made in the piece.
No doubt this piece will receive a similar treatment.
Unfortunately for the anonymous trolls I have a very thick skin.
The far-right does not have reasoned points to make, it only has the hate, abuse, and distortion of facts which it is pleased to call 'free speech'.
READ MORE: The full timeline of Elon Musk vs Humza Yousaf
However, any abuse a low profile and unimportant person like me receives shrinks into insignificance compared to that which former first minister Humza Yousaf is subjected to.
Humza Yousaf called out Musk in a Tweet on August 1 referencing Musk's role in turning Twitter into a turbo charged echo chamber for racism and outright fascism.
He wrote: "Elon Musk is a dangerous race baiter who must be held to account for his actions.
“ I can't think what it is that upsets him so much about a Brown, Muslim, progressive politician?
“But his billions won't stop me calling out his support for the far-right."
The former first minister's post was met by the predictable torrent of abuse from far-right accounts insisting amongst other things that he's not really Scottish and that his speech from seven years ago in which he pointed out the lack of minority ethnic people in positions of power and influence in Scotland was 'proof' that he's a racist who hates white people.
Apparently calling out institutional racism is the most racist thing you can possibly do.
Well, who knew?
Humza Yousaf's post came to the attention of Musk, who in his typical can-dish-it-out-but-can't-take-it style retorted : “He’s obviously super racist against white people.
“I dare that scumbag to sue me. Go ahead, make my day.
“Legal discovery will show that however big a racist he’s been in public communications, he is vastly worse in private communications.”
During an appearance at the Edinburgh Fringe last week Humza Yousaf branded Musk as one of the most dangerous men on the planet.
READ MORE: John Swinney hits back at Elon Musk after Humza Yousaf attack
He also accused the owner of Twitter of having allowed the site to amplify white supremacists and highlighted how Musk had claimed “civil war is inevitable” following the far-right racist riots in England and Northern Ireland.
In an interview with the American news network CNN, the former first minister accused Musk of using Twitter to "amplify white supremacy," saying: "He [Musk] is, I would suggest, one of the most dangerous men on the planet.”
He added: "He has suggested, I think is hoping for, civil war in some parts of Europe including in the UK.
"And instead of using X as a platform for good, and using his enormous wealth for good, he is using it, I think, for the most wicked evil possible.
"And in terms of regulation let me say this is something that the Prime Minister Keir Starmer will now have to think seriously about what more needs to be done.
"We need to have better regulation to ensure that we don't have the kind of disinformation that has run rampant in the last week be allowed to do so in the future with such devastating consequences.
“He uses his billions, he is unaccountable to anyone, to amplify far-right, white supremacist ideology."
Twitter has become almost unusable since Musk took over.
Although I never engage with right-wing accounts on the platform, indeed I am largely a passive user of Twitter who rarely engages with anyone, Twitter repeatedly pushes the racist misinformation spreading account of far-right thug Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, AKA "Tommy Robinson" as someone I should follow.
READ MORE: Elon Musk's Humza Yousaf claim sparks Twitter/X privacy concerns
Musk changed how the platform works to make likes invisible to everyone except the original poster. This incentivises people to like racist and offensive posts safe in the knowledge that they cannot be identified as a racist.
However, likes are not invisible to Twitter's algorithms and the platform pushes posts which have received more likes to the top of users' feeds, particularly those from paid accounts.
The result of this is that on opening Twitter, users are confronted with a sewage pipe outflow deluge of racism and bigotry from accounts that they do not follow.
I have no particular wish to see the posts of Italian white supremacists, far-right English nationalists or Christian nationalist apologists for Donald Trump, but Twitter seems to think it is very important that such people are preferentially platformed.
BBC Scotland refuses to issue correction for blatant inaccuracy
Meanwhile, in a blink and hopefully you'd miss it response to a complaint, BBC Scotland has refused to issue an official correction of the inaccurate claim made on July 23 by Good Morning Scotland host Laura Maxwell.
Maxwell said that Labour's Scottish leader Anas Sarwar wanted to see the two-child cap scrapped “immediately”.
Yet the BBC has refused to officially correct the record despite admitting that the story should have been worded differently.
Speaking on the programme as MPs prepared to vote on an SNP amendment to the King's Speech demanding the immediate abolition of the two child cap, Maxwell said:
"We also know though in terms of internal Labour Party management, the Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has said he would like to see the two-child cap scrapped immediately as well."
No Labour MP from Scotland voted to scrap the cap, and despite BBC Scotland giving considerable publicity to the supposed opposition of Labour in Scotland to the cap, the broadcaster has refused to hold Sarwar to account for his misleading comments prior to the General Election when the Labour Party in Scotland insisted it opposed the cap.
Sarwar had never said he wanted the "immediate" abolition of the cap, he only wants it when his bosses give permission.
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